Last Dance?
by Envious Sloth
Summary: Moments after the events in "Meet the Robinson," Wilbur has to deal with being grounded but not till he says his final goodbyes to Violet.


It was about two hours since Lewis had left, and since his dad was back home that meant Wilbur was going to get an earful about the disaster that he brought up. In his defense, it wasn't all _his_ fault; sure, he was the one who left the garage door open and all, but at least he was trying to fix everything - something's just have to be messed up in order to fix the mistake. It's not to say that Wilbur's father, Cornelius, didn't believe him. How couldn't he believe his own son since he, as a young child, went on the crazy journey to the "future" _with_ Wilbur? He saw everything first-hand, and understood the whole situation entirely. However, Cornelius ought to restrain his son a little more, so he doesn't wind up losing another time machine. So Cornelius decided to lock up the time machine, and by locking up, he meant stopping all the passage tubes from leading to the garage and locking up all the doors of the garage. That meant that the only person that could get around to the garage was Cornelius and the robot, Carl.

Wilbur knew that that was considerably the rational thing to do for his actions, but that meant that he wouldn't be able to travel time every night like before. Those nights were always the best nights because of the many people from different eras he would meet, even becoming friends with many engineers and artists of history. However, of all the people he met throughout history, he always found himself travelling back to a certain time in the late 1960's - and it wasn't to meet some crazy famous being either. It was to see this one person, a girl about his age. Whenever he came to the 60's, he would always visit this girl at the exact same place, and it was always the night after previous meeting. He wouldn't mind meeting her the exact same day, but that would mean meeting his past self, and that's only going to lead into more timeline complexities with paradoxes.

How they met was rather interesting, too. He decided to travel into the 60's first off to possibly see some awesome superheroes that existed back then, but he accidentally punched in the wrong time into the machine, so he winded up going to the 60's one autumn night. Wilbur found himself in front of a peculiarly small suburban house of all places, and the only thing that lit the black concrete streets and the chalky driveway were some weak streetlights strewn about the area. With the weak light, he had seen a shadow sitting on the porch of the one story house, and that was the girl. A dark beauty hidden under the shadows and under her long silky-looking hair. She had such beautiful berry blue eyes that were rather hard to see with all that hair in the way, but nonetheless, visible with the help of the light. Wilbur hesitated to approach the girl, attempting to return back to his time machine before being caught, but the girl caught him first. After that, things went on its merry way; the beginning of their friendship was rocky with a large argument of why Wilbur was snooping around her house, but things began to simmer down after Wilbur had cleared himself of being some sort of thief. They began to talk a little more on why Wilbur was around, and Wilbur had no other way of avoiding the truth - that is unless, he wished to sound like some poser, throwing in as many 60's slang as he could. Obviously that wouldn't work; that would make the girl weirded out by him, and that only leads to him looking like a freak of some sorts. So, Wilbur did tell the truth of him coming from the future and him wishing to see some superheroes of the time. At first, the girl was baffled by his explanation, but when Wilbur showed her to his time machine, she couldn't help but comply to his story. The girl began to question him about the future and all sorts of things to come in the future and Wilbur couldn't help but get passionate over that entire conversation. It was because of that one conversation that the two became close, and Wilbur finally knew the name of the girl, Violet.

After that day, Wilbur decided to visit Violet every night following, and Violet didn't mind. It was awkward for Violet at first, being the shy kid she was, but she did actually enjoy his company. These little meetings eventually grew longer and longer as the days continued and they began to talk a little longer. At times, they would find themselves playing around and at other times, they found themselves twirling each other without music. By that time, they had found something that they both enjoyed doing together - dancing. Suddenly, each meeting became a dance session of different songs of different eras, ranging from the 1940s to the 3000's. Violet would play her sets of songs on her little radio set that she would bring out every time Wilbur arrived, and Wilbur would let music play from the time machine as they danced.

Those were the days and the reasons why Wilbur felt so heartbroken and sad about the restriction Cornelius placed on the time machines. It then occurred to him that because of the restriction, he won't be able to meet Violet tonight. No explanation or anything, he was about to leave Violet stranded, possibly confused, possibly angry at his sudden disappearance after about four months of hanging out with each other. He needed to somehow get to her to say goodbye, and he actually knew how to do it.

So, off he went, searching for a specific person, and it wasn't his father ‒ certainly not. The "person" he was looking for was the closest person to him in the entire family.

In the dining room of the Robinson's residence, Carl was looking out the large window, down to the many bushy sculptures of teacups and loaves of bread. Every once in a while, his sighs could be heard resonating throughout the lonely room. It was a tiring day after all and the sun had just begun setting, telling everyone that sleep was soon to come.

When Wilbur entered the room, Carl didn't notice one bit; there was no flinching or movement from the shiny yellow robot, and it wasn't until Wilbur cleared his throat that Carl chose to turn around and face the boy.

"What do you want now, Wilbur?" He whined a bit. Nervously, Wilbur rubbed the back of his neck and sheepishly smiled.

"Okay, I know I'm grounded and stuff but -"

"Oh, no no no no no!" Carl pinched the supposed bridge of his nose before waving his hand, "You are _not_ going to sneak into the garage for the time machine!"

"Ah, wait! Who said I was going to get the time machine?" Wilbur argued.

"Well, that _is_ what you're going to do, right?"

"...Yes." To that, Carl shook his head.

"Look, your father wants me to make sure that you learn your lesson to not destroy the timelines again and nearly have us all KILLED! No more time machine!"

"C'mon, Carl! You know why I have to go back, right?" Wilbur groused. "And it's not because of the science fair. Trust me, I did what I had to do in that time!"

Carl had to think a little bit, conjuring up all the possible reasons why Wilbur would even want to use the time machine, if it isn't to bug Lewis. Then, a sudden memory struck him: a memory of Wilbur returning home humming away and swishing the keys back and forth in the middle of the night.

"It's the girl, isn't it?" Carl inquired. Wilbur looked away, his cheeks turning sanguine. "So it is!"

"Okay okay okay!" Wilbur shoved Carl's shoulder. "But you get why I gotta head back, right?"

"Yeah," Carl elongated, "but no. Sorry, pal, but your dad said you were grounded, and you should listen to him." Wilbur pouted at the comment.

"But Carl, buddy, I need to at least tell her! Then I won't use it anymore. Please?" Wilbur pleaded. Silently, the robot thought for a bit. He weighed the different outcomes of the different choices. He still believed that not letting Wilbur go was the correct choice.

"Please, Carl! I don't want her being all angry at me for leaving." Oh, yeah, that was something he didn't think about when pondering about the outcomes. Again, Carl had to keep thinking, a long silence looming over the two in the large dining hall. He had to think about the girl, too. How could him leaving possibly mess the girl up? Fair to say, it really would. Well, if the two were all that close like he imagined, then of course. Carl sighed in defeat. Muttering an apology, he began to lead Wilbur off to the garage. In response, the boy was exuberant, running off after Carl to use the time machine.

When they arrived in the garage, Wilbur went straight to the machine, hopping into the seat. Carl sometimes shook his head, feeling a sense of regret for his choice, but he knew that there was no stopping Wilbur. Without further ado, with a zoom and a pop of a bubble, Wilbur was gone.

A blast of light welcomed Wilbur to the well-known night of the 1960s. It was a chilly night like the nights prior, with fallen leaves rustling away with the blowing wind. The musty streetlights still failed to be as refulgent as it would have been. Though all the houses in the suburbs looked all the same, Wilbur knew which one belonged to Violet and automatically flew the machine over to meet her there.

Upon the porch, Violet sat waiting like the nights before, but after all these nights, these nights became more meaningful to her. At first, she only wished to sit outside to clear her head after all the events happening at home, believing that she was going to suffocate if she didn't go out. The problems with hiding her powers and the annoyance that came with her life at home kept hammering her down, and it grew to become a headache. She couldn't take it without being grouchy, and what good would it do her if she were grouchy all the time? So, here she was, sitting outside, but in the present time, she was here not just to clear her head but to fill it with glee: a wonderful feeling that she would return to bed and sleep soundly with.

When she saw Wilbur land and get out of the flying contraption, Violet quickly made her way over to Wilbur.

"Wilbur!" She chirped, running down the driveway to meet him, but then she noticed something. He wasn't his usual happy self.

"Hey, Vi…" He muttered, rubbing the back of his neck and refusing to look at her. Violet furrowed her eyebrows.

"You alright?" She questioned him. In response, he tried to laugh it off, giving a weak smile, but that wasn't enough to convince her. Violet knew better. After these few months of being around each other, Violet picked up a lot of different perks about Wilbur, and rubbing the back of his neck and laughing like that was a negative sign. "Something happen in the future?"

"You could say that, yeah…" Wilbur muttered again, leaning back on the red machine. Violet continued to focus on the boy, attempting to decipher the truth.

"Did something happen with family or maybe…" Her voice trailed off.

"Family, yeah," Wilbur opened up, "Got myself in trouble so I, well, you know how the story goes." And she did. She didn't even bother questioning any further. Instead, Violet felt a sudden tear within her, or perhaps a heavy weight being placed on her chest.

"So you can't come around anymore?" She started sobbing a bit, trying to throw out her emotions but utterly failing. Wilbur shook his head, still not looking her in the eye. Wilbur squeezed his eyes shut, feeling some tears come up but the tears broke through and a few slowly slid down his cheeks. He gave up trying to stop the tears after that. Then, he decided to look at Violet, who, too, was starting to shed more tears.

"Sorry, Vi." Wilbur reached out to Violet and embraced her. He felt her body shake in his arms and that made him feel all the more terrible. In the silence, they held each other, both wishing that this day wouldn't have come at all.

Wilbur knew that this was hurting Violet as much, if not more, as it was hurting him, and he absolutely hated seeing her like this. With all the many memories of seeing her cheering and dancing away despite the cold winds beating on them, this moment was like meeting a different person.

He didn't want their last meeting to be sad at all. He _did_ want to be meaningful though. So, he receded back to their usual routines of their meetings. He let go of Violet, who only looked at him with confused, teary eyes. He raised a finger, signalling for her to wait. She nodded, and soon Wilbur climbed back into his ship to turn on a song he found that reminded him to the 1960s, with the slow jazz music. No singing. Just pure instrumentals.

When Wilbur hopped out, Violet was still sobbing quietly, covering her face with her hand. At this, Wilbur smiled lovingly. He took a step closer to her and took her one of her soft hands into his. With his other hand, Wilbur held Violet's waist close to him. With her free hand, Violet held tightly around Wilbur's neck, afraid of what dare happens if she let him go. She laid her forehead on his shoulder, still crying softly. The two began to sway delicately to the beats of the music, casually making turns as they sway continuously. Throughout the music, Wilbur kept hushing and rocking Violet, as though to lull her to the music: the kind trumpet's melody being slow and soft; the quiet piano playing sweet, playful notes here and there.

The time came when the music was near its end, and Wilbur knew that his time to be with Violet was almost up. Before it came to that, he wanted to give her something quickly while they were dancing. Violet held her eyes closed as they continue to swing, but Wilbur decided to give her a kiss on her forehead anyways, leaving his lips on her forehead for the longest time. He squeezed his eyes shut, feeling more tears come up, but it was when his eyes shut that he felt a pair of lips on his. It was then that he felt them stop swaying and instead began kissing passionate goodbyes to one another. The warm kiss was a kiss of gratitude to one another for all the memories they made together, all laced together under one action for each other. Mixed emotions were felt between the two: hurt, love, gratitude, and sadness.

A sudden pause in the air signed for Wilbur that he had to go. The two took a step away from each other, holding each other's arms tightly. They looked into each other's eyes and smiled. There was a sign of hope in what they shared - through both the kiss and that smile. They knew he would come back anyways. Some way or another, no matter how long it might take, he'll keep trying to get to the machine to see her again. No matter what.

They let go, and Wilbur jumped back into his ship, waving a "final" farewell before flying off to the future. Violet watched him go and disappear into the sky, and it took a while for her to make herself go back inside. She kept grinning from ear to ear, already dreaming about him coming back for another dance. Maybe it might take a while for him, but she knew that he'll come back the following night for her. He was just like that, and that's what made her all the happier.


End file.
